What we see determines the direction our life will take.

Are our eyes just windows through which we view the world? Might they hold a more profound purpose? It makes a lot of difference when we consider that what we see and how we see it shapes the direction of our lives.

A successful businessperson can spot opportunities that others miss. They read market trends, anticipate changes, and then act on that foresight. Or consider top-tier students. They don’t just memorise; they immerse themselves in their studies, almost as if they can predict what questions will appear on their exams. A good leader should be able to put the right person in the right position to do the best job possible. In other words, they need to have the ability to see what others cannot see. We call an expert someone who has a particular eye for their field that others do not have.

On one hand, our fast-paced lives often keep us locked in the present, making us miss the forest for the trees.  It’s like chess. A beginner gets excited about capturing a single piece, while a grandmaster is quietly plotting five moves ahead, laying the groundwork for checkmate.

It’s the same with our lives.  Everything can change depending on whether you only look at what’s on the surface or understand what’s going on beneath the surface. People who focus on symptoms, events, and problems are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

You see, when we view the world only through our physical eyes, disappointment is almost guaranteed. Everything we hold dear, everything we pride ourselves on—it’s all temporary. ppt As the Apostle Peter so poignantly puts it, ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls.’

Think about your most cherished possessions; perhaps it’s your new car, your phone, a lot of saved money in your bank accounts, or a fulfilling job. These things bring us joy, and that’s perfectly fine. But here’s the thing: nothing in this world is permanent.

Remember how shiny a new phone is in a year or two?  Now, there’s a newer model. One day, I was driving by a house with a great ocean view, and I said to my friend next to me, ‘That house is really nice; look at the view…’ And she said, ‘You know, the honeymoon is over in a month, even with a great view… That’s how it goes with everything we can see or touch. Cars break down, houses age, and even our health fades. It’s like flowers—beautiful in spring, gone by winter.

You might think, ‘But I’ve worked hard for these things!’ And you have. We all do. Yet the Bible says, “All people are like grass… the grass withers and the flowers fall.” It sounds sad, but there’s hope. God says, ‘There’s more to life than just what you see. Let’s look deeper.

Let’s think about your body. As the years pass, it changes, doesn’t it? Wrinkles appear, joints ache, and energy fades. It’s easy to feel discouraged. But Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:16, says something amazing: ‘Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.’ Imagine that! While our bodies age, our spirits can grow stronger every single day.

Now, look around you. What will happen to everything you see—your phone, your car, even this church building? In 10, 50, or 200 years, they’ll be gone or changed beyond recognition. And it’s not just things. We, too, will disappear from this world.

Here’s the tricky part: the more we love these visible things, the more it hurts to lose them. Some of us get so focused on what we can see that we forget there’s more. We think, ‘This is mine forever!’ But that’s an illusion, a trick our eyes play on us because we can’t see the actual spiritual world.

C.S. Lewis, a great Christian thinker, said our world is just a shadow of God’s eternal kingdom. It’s like God gave us this ‘shadowland’ to help us imagine the real thing. Paul got this. He saw that this world isn’t all there is. There’s a ‘real’ world waiting, more real than anything we see now. That’s why he says to focus on the eternal.

But how do we see what’s invisible? Through faith! Faith is like getting new eyes. Hebrews 11 talks about people who saw the invisible. Noah built a huge ark because he saw a flood no one else could. Abraham left his home because he saw a promise. They didn’t chase what was in front of them. They lived by faith, not sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Now, this might sound silly. If everything worked by our logic and experience, why pray? Why turn to God? Of course, we should work hard for our dreams. But prayer? That’s tapping into a power bigger than us. To the world, prayer looks weak. But through faith-eyes, it’s our hotline to God’s power.

Your spirit, your real self, can’t be seen, but it’s more real than your body. Paul wasn’t discouraged because every day, he saw his spirit getting stronger. I pray we all see this, too—our renewing spirits, not our aging bodies.

This isn’t just about us as individuals. Throughout the Bible, we see this tension between those who chase after the visible and those who grasp the invisible. We saw it in Samuel’s day: people asking God for the world they wanted, with all its visible signs of power. They wanted a king they could see, a leader who looked strong by worldly standards. But God sees the heart, the invisible reality.

In the Gospel of Mark, we see the scribes who deceive and incite people against the Holy Spirit. They were fixated on their own laws, their own positions, and things they could control and see. But they missed the invisible work of God right in front of them. So, we have to ask ourselves: What do we see, and what do we hear? Who are we listening to? The loudest voices, the flashiest signs? Or are we tuning our hearts to the still, small voice of God?

Let’s end with Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:18: ‘We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ Today, let’s choose to see the eternal. Amen.